In underground mining, in particular coal mining, coal ploughs have been used for many decades for mining underground coal seams. The most used in this connection are individual ploughs, which are restrictedly guided on a plough guiding means attached on the working face side on a longwall conveyor and have a pivotable cutter carrier for each direction of travel and first cutter columns and secondary cutter columns that are mounted on the ploughing body, where applicable, so as to be vertically adjustable in order to be able to adapt the overall height of the individual plough to the respective conditions of use in the underground longwall and above all to the seam thickness. The secondary cutter columns can also be realized as add-on units which can be placed optionally on the ploughing body.
DE 196 37 789 A1, for example, discloses an individual plough which is guided via a guide rail and a track plate on the plough guiding means attached on the working face side on the trough pans of the longwall conveyor and at the same time engages over the conveyor troughs of the longwall conveyor by way of a support portal so that it is additionally supported on a guide rail on the stowage side. The individual plough has a single carriage-shaped ploughing body and the add-on parts with the secondary cutter columns are connected to the ploughing body by means of chain-link-shaped elements.
DE 10 2005 049 971 A1 makes known an individual ploughing body in the form of a sword plough, where pivotable cutter carriers are coupled in a travel-direction-dependent manner by means of a connecting rod so that, in dependence on the direction of travel, always only one of the two cutter carriers removes material at the working face, whilst the other cutter carrier is situated in a pivot position in which the cutters of said cutter carrier have no contact with the working face.
A plough provided with two plough bodies is known, for example, from DE 25 00 680 A1 and from DE 27 28 178 A1. Both plough bodies are restrictedly guided at a plough guiding means attached on the working face side. The two plough bodies are interconnected by means of a joint connection which consists of individual chain links.